plea is most miserable, as the names and professions of the last mentioned gentlemen, will sufficiently prove. Clayton, Bishop of Clogher, Hoadley, of Winchester, and Dr. Samuel Clarke, were all decidedly in favour of episcopacy, but will this atone for their endeavours to rend in pieces the sacred vesture of Christian doctrine and to reduce to a nullity, the "faith once delivered to the saints?"

We will not endeavour to depreciate the character of Mr. Drewitt, but when Mr. Biddulph so exalts it as to render the inhabitants of Chedder, dissatisfied with whoever shall be his successor, he does an act of injustice to a living, while he is lavishly praising his deceased brother.

A Sermon preached in the Parish Church of Kingston upon Thames, before the Judges, &c. March 21, 1804. By the Rev. John Barwis, A. M. Rector of Niton, in the Isie of Wight, and Chaplain to the High Sheriff. 4to pp. 17. THIS is a learned discourse, and was written for the

purpose of delivery before the judges of assize, the high sheriff, and the grand inquest of the county of Surrey. Mr. Barwis writes like a philosopher, and his sermon will be read by scholars with pleasure; but it could not, we are of opinion, especially the first part of it, be heard with effect. Country gentlemen, the petty juries, and the evidences, would scarcely comprehend the author's meaning. It is to be wished, that Mr. Barwis had, when he composed his sermon, considered that he was to address a popular, rather than a learned auditory. His discourse would, it is probable, have been more useful. We do not mean to imply the most distant censure of Mr. Barwis; on the contrary, we think his sermon possessed of much excellence: but we would guard all preachers against what is commonly called shewing off; or as St. Paul better expresses it," against preaching themselves." We wish instruction, edification, and persuasion to be, as they ought to be, the grand objects of the clergy of our Church.

Our readers will observe that we object only to the first part of the sermon, as above the comprehension of the generality of the congregation: the latter part of the discourse is more popular, and would, with tolerable attention, have been understood. But if the hearer does

not

not feel interested at the beginning of the sermon, it is not often that he pays attention to the remaining part of it, so that the preacher is to him, however just his reasoning, and pertinent his observations, "no better than sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal."

POETRY.

4.

THE CHRISTIAN.

BY G. RICHARDS, A.M.

LATE FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD.

AS

(Concluded from Page 153.)

S far from truth they wander, who believe
The Apostles fram'd a story to deceive.
What their reward? If false the tale, farewell
All their high hopes in happier worlds to dwell:
For what in death could wait them, but the rod
Uprais'd in vengeance by an injured God?
On earth they labour'd an ungrateful soil;
Affliction was the fruit, that crown'd their toil.
Riches and sway imperial they disclaim'd,
And each licentious pleasure sternly blam'd.
No laurels round the brow conspicuous twin'd;
No public plaudits swell'd the kindling mind:
But blasted were their toils, and curs'd their state,
By malice, by the universal hate

Of human kind, and all the passions dire,
Which an ungovern'd lust of vice can fire.
To dungeons deep and gloomy they were led:
Beneath the torturer's iron scourge they bled.
Oft o'er the extended earth from east to west,
At the capricious tyrant's wild behest,
Stretch'd on the cross, bound in the fiery blast,
Or to the famish'd lions dreadly cast,

They stood the shock of power; and, brave in vain,

Clos'd in untimely death a life of pain.

5. From scenes, which fancy shuddering dreads to view, From groans which agonizing nature drew,

O turn, my Muse: the ancient world survey'd,
View over all the holy Cross display'd:
Then bend thine eye to Jewry's hallow'd land,
And see from Sion's mount yon slender band

Go

Go on the wondrous mission, to o'erthrow
All heathen gods, and lay all altars low;
Give to the world at large one law, and bind
In one unvaried faith all human kind.

Needy, untaught, unfriended, and unpriz'd,
Their language foreign, and their tribe despis'd,
To east, to west, behold, they various roam
To letter'd Athens and imperial Rome.
No crescent they display, no sword they draw,
Nor with the glorious pomp of conquest awe:
But with plain speech, and regulated zeal,
Simply their tale relate, their faith reveal.
Yet multitudes with awe their words receive,
And sages bow convinc'd, and kings believe;
Fresh converts each succeeding day supplies,
New suppliants crowd the shrines, new temples rise.
And as of old the waters steep on steep
O'erflowing swell'd, till all was one vast deep;
So on they prosperous speed from shore to shore,
Where'er the legions march, or eagles soar,
Till all, who view the glorious orb of day,
JEHOVAH'S name adore, and CHRIST obey.

Say, in this change so wondrous does thine eye
No interposing hand divine descry?

Had not the Omnipotent the labour bless'd,
Miraculously work'd, and shone confess'd,
Who can believe that all the human race,
At the weak call of strangers poor and base,

Would dash their gods to earth, and one belief embrace?
If such high truths, although no wondrous deed
The Teacher work, through native beauty speed;
Ask of the men, who bear the Christian lore

To Indian clans and Afric's Pagan shore,

Why from the strain, which angels pleas'd might hear,
Turns the dull savage back with deafen'd ear
To gods of stock and stone; and, basely bow'd,
In phrensy tears his flesh, and shrieks aloud?
Ask why the natives, innocent and mild,.
Of Greenland's icied rocks and snowy wild,
Saw rising near their caves the Christian shrine,
Heard the warm Teacher's eloquence divine,
Yet sprung, when summer op'd the frozen way,
And launch'd his vessel, and forbade delay.
Ev'n now behold, on Thames's swelling tides,
From southern seas the vessel entering rides:
Though gentlest thoughts the native's breast inspir'd,
Though, zcal the Preacher's glowing bosom fir'd,

Back

Back they convey the unaccepted lore,
Nor leave one Christian on Taite's shore.

6. One labour more, celestial Muse, remains:
Aid thou, for God himself demands the strains.
Though in the lowly form of man he lay,
Cloth'd with corrupt and perishable clay,
Uninjur'd yet as pure of guilt he shone,
As the bright seraph round the eternal throne:
No passions shook his frame: they, aw'd and still,
Mov'd in obedience to his blameless will.

Hatred, and maniac Anger, Malice fell,
And loose Desire, asham'd her deeds to tell,
And Envy, making Paradise a Hell,

O'ermaster'd, stood remote: while full confess'd
Each grace adorning man his life express'd;
Humility, with aspect bland declin'd;
And Charity, who glows for all mankind;
And Mercy, pleading with expiring breath
Ev'n for the infuriate foe that gives the death;
And Resignation meek; and, lifting high
Her stedfast look, celestial Piety.

Nor less his doctrines, fruit of thought divine,
Full of the God, in pure perfection shine.
The wits of yore, the glory of our race,
But faintly could immortal virtue trace;
And happiness, that first desire of man,

Like night before the sun, for ever from them ran.
Far other Thou, great Teacher of mankind;
Thy word dispels the mist, that held us blind.
Thou, of the God, from whom all being flows,
Didst to our wondering ears the truth disclose,
Sublime beyond what ancient Sage had taught,
Or Bard in loftiest flight of fancy thought.
No precept pregnant or with vice or woe
From thy celestial lips was heard to flow.
Whate'er of pure or perfect thought can reach,
Thy life the example gives, thy doctrines teach.
To check the wildly wandering eye, to still
The rising passion, to controul the will,
Was thy divine employ: And O would they,
Who hear the Teacher, the command obey,
Angels might quit for earth their happier skies,
And man no longer want a Paradise.

Say, reverend Sages, ye who deeply scan
The powers of mind, and energies of man;
Say, could a youth, on Jewry's distant ground,
Unlearn'd, and by Barbarians circled round,

Conceive

Conceive such heavenly truths, know uninspir'd
What wisest mortals had in vain desir'd;

From Rome, from Greece, the plan of wisdom claim,
And leave to Socrates a second name?

Stay, vaunting Infidel! withold thy hand;
Wave not o'er yonder fane thy fiery brand,
The pile encompass'd by a madden'd throng,
The isles re-echoing thy blaspheming tongue :
Mortal thou art, and not from error free;
Thy thoughts may wander: truth may rest with me.
If I deluded err, and if on high

There dwell no thundering God, that rules the sky;
If only from the dust we drew our birth,

And dead, shall lose the soul, and mix with earth;
Js faith my foe ?---It bids me put all trust
In good, be humble, merciful, and just,
Supports in sickness, solaces in woes,

And o'er the gloom of life a cheering sunbeam throws.
Deceive it cannot :---ere its dream be o'er,
Sense will be fled, existence be no more:
And what to me, extinguish'd in the tomb,
Can disappointment bring of pain or gloom?

But thou, in error slumbering, think, O think,
Must wake at length on a tremendous brink.
The trump shall sound; the fire's all-wasting power
The earth with all its circling orbs devour;

The dead of every age and every

clime

Shall leave their graves, shall wing their way sublime;
Shall view their God, and hear in thunder dread

The last irrevocable sentence read,

Which through eternal ages binds the dead.

Touch'd through their brightening frames with purer fires

Shaded with palms, and hymn'd by cherub quires,

The blest through opening files of angels rise

Up to the blissful seat of Paradise ;

While they, whose vices soil'd their mortal clay,
Caught in a fiery whirlwind, pass away

To realms where Demons hold their horrid reign,
To everlasting gloom and endless pain.
Thou too must wake at that tremendous hour,
Must stand in presence of Almighty Power,
Meet face to face the God thou dar'st deny,

And hear his thunders roll, and see his lightnings fly.
The vigour of thy spirit shall remain ;

Extinction thou may'st wish; but wishes will be vain. `

O entering then with me that offer'd way, Explore where 'tis impossible to stray.

"Twas